1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a numerical controller, and particularly to a numerical controller capable of easily identifying a change of an operating environment which inhibits a start-up of the controller.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a numerical controller, in the case where a start-up of the numerical controller is inhibited by settings relating to start-up which have been incorrectly changed, settings backed up when the numerical controller has been started can be manually loaded into the numerical controller to start the numerical controller. However, in that case, the backed-up settings have setting values at the time of backing up, and latest setting values are not reflected therein. Accordingly, some of settings need to be set again after the backed-up settings have been loaded, and there is a problem that it takes a long time.
To solve such the above-described problem, a technique for backing up settings in which latest setting values are reflected has been proposed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 03-288208. In this technique, settings are automatically backed up to a storage unit during events such as the turning on of the numerical controller.
However, in the above-described technique, settings in which latest setting values are reflected are backed up by backing up settings automatically to the storage unit during events such as the turning on of the numerical controller, but settings are unconditionally backed up even in the case where there are incorrect settings. Accordingly, in the case where incorrect settings have been stored in the storage unit, there is a problem that some of settings need to be set again after the backed-up settings have been loaded, as in the prior-art technique.
Hereinafter, one example of a prior-art numerical controller will be described with reference to FIG. 14.
A numerical controller 100 includes a CPU 110 as a processor which performs arithmetic processing, and an input device controller 120 for controlling an external input device 500, a storage unit controller 130 for controlling a storage unit 200 which stores a backup of start-up settings of the numerical controller 100, a memory 140 such as a RAM or a ROM, a non-volatile memory 150 including an SRAM or the like and storing data such as settings relating to the start-up of the numerical controller 100, a display controller 160 for controlling a display unit 300, a power supply controller 170 for controlling the turning on and off of the numerical controller 100 based on an ON/OFF signal from a power switch 600, and a signal interface 180 for controlling the sending or receiving of a signal to or from a machine tool 400, which are connected to the CPU 110 through a bus 190.
When the numerical controller 100 of FIG. 14 is powered on by operating the power switch 600, setting values of settings currently set in the numerical controller 100 are automatically backed up to a setting value memory area of the storage unit 200.
Moreover, a technique for automatically restoring a controller which cannot be started has been proposed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 05-341967. In this technique, when an operating environment of a computer is changed and the computer is restarted, the operating environment before changing is backed up; and, in the case where the computer cannot be started, the operating environment before changing is automatically reconstructed.
However, in the above-described technique, when changing the operating environment of the computer and restarting the computer, the controller which cannot be started is automatically restored using the operating environment backed up before changing. However, there is a problem that it is difficult to identify a change in the operating environment which inhibits a start-up only by automatically carrying out a restoration process.
Further, a technique for managing settings has been proposed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2011-118817. In this technique, differences between default settings and settings changed by an operator are managed using a list.
However, the above-described technique can detect differences in settings, but cannot determine whether changed settings are correct or not and prevent changes to incorrect settings.